Welcome to the AC Tropical Fish aquarium forum. Our aquarium forum is the place to discuss any aquarium related issue in a friendly environment. Our aquarium forum welcomes aquarists of all levels from beginners to experts. Please ask a question in the how to section of our forum or read the FAQ section if you have any questions. register to and become a part of our friendly aquarium forum community today.

My first Cichlid!

0

I got my first Cichlid today. I got a small 3/4 inch female (I hope) convict. It's totally cute. When feeding tonight it was out chasing the food with my tiger barbs. I can't wait to see it grow up. I think I'll name her Lizzie after Lizzie Borden.

Love the fact that Lizzie (who is smaller than my barbs) is stealing food from their mouths. Now, she's chasing them away from the substrate so she can eat the remaining food herself. And, here I was worries about Lizzie not getting enough food.

Lizzie is a right terror. When the food hits the top of the tank, she's up there with the barbs fighting for it. Then once the food has sunk, she defends the bottom of the tank from all the barbs who are swimming down to clean up the rest of the food she swims patrols and chases off all interlopers. All of them, Lizzie and the Barbs, are horrible beggars. I can't walk by the tank without them begging for food. I'm so excited to finally have a fun tank!! It's been some trial and error over the past few years. I wish someone had clued me in to these fish a long time ago. They are so fun to watch. My other tank is going to be a peaceful community tank, but if I ever have a die-off, I think I might just have to have two semi-aggressive tanks. I love the tigers as well as Lizzie.

Convicts are like the pound for pound champs in fighting they might not be as big as some others iirc they max out around 6'' but they have personality. They are also really easy to breed and come in a bunch of color variants like pink and albino; I kept one adult male with my 12'' jack dempsey and 11'' pike cichlid and he held his own in that 75g.

I don't know your tank size or tiger barb size but they will become VERY aggressive when they mature and likely kill your tiger barbs if it's on the small size.